April 26, 2000

Facilities Information Management System

In July 1995, the Department of Energy implemented a $2 million corporate database which was to contain up-to-date, reliable and comprehensive real property information. The specific intent was to provide the Department’s decisionmakers at Headquarters and in the field with the data needed to make informed judgments regarding the management of the Department’s real property inventory. At the time of our audit, the database, the Facilities Information Management System (FIMS), included over 100 million gross square feet of building space, 2 million acres of land, $7 billion worth of other structures and facilities, and $900 million of deferred maintenance items. With its multi-billion dollar inventory of real property at sites throughout the nation, maintaining complete and accurate information on these holdings is critical. Accordingly, the objective of this audit was to determine if FIMS was a reliable source of information.